


somebody find me, find me love

by Kagura



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Danarius should be a warning all on his own, Eventual Happy Ending, Fenris' POV, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Leto's POV, M/M, More in the notes, References to Fenris' backstory as a slave, Slavery, Soulmate AU, bodyswapping soulmate AU, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 10:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18386792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagura/pseuds/Kagura
Summary: “I didn’t let you tag along just so you can wake me up in the middle of the night” the man continues “We have only two days until Ost—”“I’m not him” Fenris says, blunty.The man’s jaw clenches.“Of fucking course you are not.”Soulmate AU in which you and your soulmate sometimes swap bodies for a day until you meet.





	somebody find me, find me love

**Author's Note:**

> Note on the referenced/implied abuse:  
> Despite the premise, Hawke doesn’t undergo through any of the worst Fenris went through. I’m not equipped to write that story with these characters, I’m barely capable of writing Fenris’ and I'm only implying it really hard.  
> There is a one-line mention to Fenris' sexual abuse and other mentions of abuse lifted from the game but nothing is explicitely showed.  
> Fenris is also a slave for two thirds of this, so there's that.
> 
> Thanks to @Karenina1789 for being a great beta and catching all my grammar mistakes.  
> Title is from "Somebody to love" by Queen.

Leto’s eyes are still closed when he smells dirt and mist, something warm, thick and rough wrapped around him.  
Something sniffs his ear and something wet touches his face.  
He immediately sits up and the creature— barks, happily, tail wagging.  
He’s in a forest. The trees are darker and duller than any he has ever seen, almost the same green and brown as the ground. He can feel the cold soil under his palm and the grass between his fingers, an ant already crawling on his thumb, his skin a shade darker than it should be. He’s wearing wool and leather and there is a bow beside him.  
Excited, he raises a hand to his ears—but no, he’s human. He stands up and he’s not that tall, either. He wonders if his soulmate is young or just short.  
The dog barks again and runs to him and licks his face before Leto can stop him.  
“Hey” he tries, and the dog immediately sits down and waits.  
“You know I am not him, right?” he blurts. He heard a lot of stories about animals being able to sense soulmates, but at Magister Danarius’ he is not allowed near the kennels or the stables, or the fancy animals, so he’s familiar only with rats, chickens and geese.  
The dog barks again, then bites the bag under the covers and drops it at Leto’s feet. There is some food, and salves and jars he can’t tell apart, but also a leather pouch with a feather carved on it.  
There are two things inside - a letter in common he can’t read and a drawing of five people - his soulmate’s family, he guesses. It looks old and the little boy in the middle can’t be more than ten.  
They look nice. _He_ also drew a shield with some weird dog-lions on it. Leto tries to memorize it as better as he can, alongside the signature on the letter. He thinks he can manage to copy it down somewhere. It’s not like Leto will ever be able to look for him - even if Leto escapes, who will look after mother and Varania? - but _he_ might show up. Soulmates do sometimes. Leto doesn’t think his soulmate has enough money to just show up and buy Leto’s family in bulk, like some do but his soulmate is not a slave, so it could happen. Or Varania could be a mage after all, and then _Leto_ could look for _him_ , once they are free.  
There is nothing wrong in trusting the Maker, once in a while. In the meantime, he can probably manage to find a lake and see his soulmate’s face.  
He sort of hopes his soulmate is the boy in the middle. He likes the colour of his hair.

 

After his mother is sure that it’s safe for all of them, Sellanus, who works in the house, agrees to show up for dinner and tell him all he has heard about Ferelden, where Leto’s soulmate -  
_Hawke, his name is Hawke and Varania thinks he’s funny, which makes Leto very happy_  
\- lives.  
Sellanus laughs when he hears that there actually was a dog.

 

When he wakes up, the mattress is softer than usual and the blankets are made of wool. The air smells vaguely of tea and porridge. His body is not sore, and clean and unhurt.  
“Oh, brother” says a female voice with a sigh, confirming his suspicion. His Master was supposed to be at the Senate the whole day and then spend the evening at Magister Pavus, so it is unlikely that he would require Fenris’ service today, especially not after tonight. Fenris is glad he will not be displeased.  
“Wake up, lazy ox” someone tugs at his hair, and Fenris immediately sits up. It’s a girl not even in her twenties, with dark skin and black hair, staring at him.  
Fenris blinks.  
“Maker’s Breath, it’s you” she says, immediately “And Carver isn’t even here...”  
Fenris remains silent.  
“I’m his sister, Bethany” she smiles “I think he wrote a letter, but I can tell you…”  
“I am Fenris”  
She frowns “Your name is...Fenris?”  
He nods.  
“Alright, Fenris it is” she says, smiling again “Ask me whatever you want. He looks pretty much the same except for a butterfly on his face - there is a pond nearby, if you want to see.”  
“I do not.”  
She pauses. She softens “Are you alright? Ferelden is a long way from Tevinter”  
“It is irrelevant”  
She smooths down her skirt “I guess it is. I need to go to the market today, we have things that need selling. You can remain here if you want, but I could really use your help to carry everything down the village.”  
Fenris nods and stands.  
“Thank you. His clothes are…on the floor, as usual” she sighs “I hope you like porridge”  
Fenris nods as she leaves. The man has his own room, small but comfortable, a table under the window, jars, tins and boxes, a dresser, a bow, arrows, knives. He picks up one as he dresses.  
There is also a drawing on the table, near a leather pouch decorated with a stylized feather. The boy in the middle looks barely ten. The woman must be the girl on the left.  
The porridge the woman gives him is sweet and goes well with the plum jam she insists he tries, the tea tastes faintly of mint. She doesn’t try talking to him after that - they walk in silence, Fenris taking in numbly first the green and brown of the fields around them as the sun rises, then the brown and white of the people of the market, with few spots of faded reds and greens. Many seem to know the man and stop by and the woman takes it on herself to explain, so Fenris sits quietly behind her and fades into the background. It is not different than serving his Master, although what he hears is new. People talk mostly of farming and food, chattering and gossiping - it sounds like they all know each other, often using a tilt of the head or a signifying glance instead of a name.   
For lunch he eats a stew, grey like those the slaves outside the house usually eat, but bland. They even offer him some raspberries.  
Someone at the market sells cheap mirrors made of copper. Fenris turns his head and avoids the man’s reflection as they pass by.  


  When he wakes up, his body is still sore but clean of blood and semen. Ointments and salves have been applied on his tights and his throat.  
Sellanus, one of the high-ranked slaves in the house, assures him that the man did not cause any trouble and was quick to obey.  
Fenris reports to his Master, who decides that his memories are not worthy worrying about but alters Fenris' connection to the Fade, to prevent any of this from happening again.  
After a couple of days, Sellanus tells him that the national animal of Ferelden is the mabari, a breed of dogs created by the magisters that turned against them.  
He asks Fenris if he has seen any. Fenris says he hasn’t.

 

As soon as he feels the hard ground under him, he growls and sits up, furious. He lost Danarius’ henchmen around Ostwick two days ago, he can’t afford to lose a whole day _now,_ even if  he had secretly hoped for _this_ to happen again for years, vishante kaffas!  
“Oi” mutters a voice. It’s a man with dark skin and black hair, sitting up and scowling. Fenris realizes they are in a proper tent, and can hear footsteps, metal clattering and people muttering around - a camp. There is armour at the feet of their bedrolls.  
_His soulmate went and joined the fucking army._  
“I didn’t let you tag along just so you can wake me up in the middle of the night” the man continues “We have two days until Ost—”  
“I’m not him” Fenris says, blunty.  
The man’s jaw clenches.  
“Of fucking course you are not.”  
Fenris groans and falls down again on the hard soil.  
“I’m Carver” says the man “And we are getting up in two hours, so unless you want to march with us all day you can ask whatever you want now and sleep your way back to Tevinter”  
“I escaped” he says, and immediately adds before Carver can ask anything “Explain what insanity led you to do this” he waves at the tent around them.  
“They say it’s the Blight” he says “We are going to stop the darkspawn before it’s too late”.  
Fenris snorts, anger slowly uncurling. It was so soon after the ritual that everything felt like a dream and he could think of nothing but obeying Danarius, but he still remembers quite vividly that day. Sometimes, when he focused, he could be back there again, sitting down at a market’s stall as the world went on without him. They seemed content and they had glanced at him and whispered in excitement, but they also had carried on talking of traps, and apples and how children kept stealing clothes off scarecrows. Sometimes, as Danarius used him like furniture or made him crawl on the floor with a leash, he repeated all those conversation in his head, remembering the colour of their clothes and the expression on their faces, the way his soulmate’s sister had forced blackberries in his hand as they walked back in the evening.  
His soulmate has a home worth defending.  
“There is a leather pouch under the pillow” says Carver “I don’t think he wrote a new letter lately, but we have mirror shards now, Maker knows where Bethany got them”  
Fenris traces the profile of the feather on the leather pouch, finally feeling the solid leather under his fingers. There is a letter, five page long and Fenris skims it, pretending to read, and stares at the signature, trying to memorize the shape and curls of his soulmate's name so he can write it down later. There is a good sketch of Ferelden’s crest on it. There is also the same drawing that was on his soulmate’s table and now he can finally look at it - his soulmate must be the boy in the middle, the older brother, smiling with his arms around his siblings. Carver is the little one on the left. The drawing is quite old. Fenris wonders why his soulmate never got a new one.  
Willing his hand firm, he curls it against the mirror shard - small but it’s actually a glass mirror, encased in wood to cover the sharp edges - and stretches his hand as far away as possible, to see as much as he can of his soulmate’s face. He’s handsome. His dark red hair compliments his dark skin and goes well with the orange tattoos surrounding his eyes like wings - or a butterfly, as Bethany said. He wonders how his soulmate looks when he smiles.  
He lowers the mirror and looks at Carver. He’s tapping his foot, arms around his knees, scowling. His armour lies at the end of the bed with a two-hand broadsword. He’s younger than his soulmate and doesn’t even look twenty-five.  
“Well?”  
_I didn’t let you tag along…_  
“How long have you slept?”  
“Six hours now. Why?”  
“It will be enough. Take your sword and come outside”  
If his soulmate is so determined to save everything and everyone, Fenris can spare a couple of hours to make sure his soulmate’s brother doesn’t get killed.

 

 When he wakes up, he’s still safe - Fenris had managed to find someone willing to write down a really quick “Don’t move, I’m followed” note to stick in his armour, just in case, and his soulmate clearly found it and fell asleep with the open note in his hand. He also wrote something with a piece of coal. Fenris folds the note carefully and puts it near his heart. While on the run, he keeps an ear out for any information about the Blight. He hears about Ostagar and tries really hard not to think about his soulmate until the Blight is defeated.  
He tracks down Danarius’ and goes to Kirkwall thinking that after this is over, he might consider going to Ferelden after all.

 

He hears a bark as he crushes the slaver’s heart, blood splattering on the stone of Kirkwall’s alienage. A female voice says “Thank the Maker” as Fenris walks down the steps, raising his head to see who Anso hired.  
The man in the middle is staring at him. He’s handsome, wearing fur and leather, a bow at his back, a smile and eyes full of awe.  
“It’s you” says Fenris, finally.

**Author's Note:**

> And then they talked a lot and agreed that they were going to wait until Fenris felt like his own person, so it still took years but with less “Hawke spending three years trying to make his feelings go away and failing miserably” angst. I like that Fenris' does not enter a relationship until he feels good enough and I'm going to keep it forever.
> 
> Thank you for reading this, feedback and criticism always welcome.


End file.
